


CORE - Crumbling Resolve

by FollowerofMercy



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AmberTale, Angst, Asgore doesn't like killing kids, Child Death, Conflict, Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Gaster is right and Asgore hates it, Gaster really doesn't like Asgore killing kids, Gen, Good W. D. Gaster, Hope and Despair, Pacifism, Parent W. D. Gaster, Past Toriel Reference, Running a nation is hard, Sad goatdad, Tired Asgore, W. D. Gaster is not related to Skelebros, lots of death, methodology conflict, nobody is happy with this, pacifist gaster, past death, sad dadster, trying to keep hope alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 11:37:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12983259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FollowerofMercy/pseuds/FollowerofMercy
Summary: Asgore reflects on bad decisions. Fanfic of Trefoil's fanficCORE, taking place after Asgore and Gaster have a small "disagreement." You should read her work first.





	CORE - Crumbling Resolve

Asgore frowned at the shattered glass scattered across the throne room floor. He poked his head out the remains of the window, minding his horns, to check on his former royal scientist. Gaster was faintly visible on the streets below, crumpled in a vendor’s cart.

 

…He wasn’t moving.

 

Asgore stared blankly down at his old friend and chewed a claw. That… had been a tad rash.

 

Ah, there we go. A twitch, and Gaster fell out of the wreckage. He struggled to his feet and dusted himself off before hobbling away in the opposite direction, waving off the concerned monsters gathering around.

 

Asgore sighed in mixed relief and shame and shuffled to his kitchen. He had let his temper get the better of him once again. He couldn’t afford to go breaking the only other boss monster in the Underground.

 

Asgore put some water to boil and massaged his temples. He hated arguing with Gaster. It left him with shaky resolve, unpleasant memories and a splitting headache.

 

Hope, they both wanted hope, and yet they could never agree on how to go about keeping it alive. Gaster just didn’t _understand,_ he told himself. Gaster didn’t know what it was like to lose everything, not like he did. Not like Toriel did.

Memories of a younger Gaster came to mind unbidden, hollow-eyed and ageless. He had sat bolt upright in the bed of flowers from one of his visions, calling quietly for a child before passing out once again. He remembered Gaster and Toriel sharing hushed conversations about Asriel and Chara, the unbearable sadness and longing on the skeleton’s face.

 

He had bounced little Asriel and Chara on his knee, taught them lullabies and astronomy and whatever else he thought of that day. He cared for them as well as their own parents did.

 

Asgore groaned. Gaster _did_ understand, probably better than he did. Not only had he lost two families, but also his body and his mind.  The poor man held himself together with stubbornness and magic, and that limitless hope.

 

Where did he get it from? How did he keep going? Asgore couldn’t understand, not Gaster, not why Toriel left him, not why the Underground supported him yet his closest friends and family did not.

 

Asgore clutched his muzzle in his hands until the guards came. He forced himself to his feet and slapped on a smile, greeting his people with offerings of tea and biscuits before they carried out their gruesome work with the body at the barrier. He steered them around the broken glass.

 

It could wait until tomorrow. Asgore just wanted today to end.

 

He was so tired.

**Author's Note:**

> Talking to Trefoil about this, I want to clarify that Gaster has his little vision when he's still recovering from being shattered. He's in that stage where he's relearning how to walk and talk. He's just... chilling in the flowerbed, as one does. (It's Gaster it's not the weirdest thing he's done.)


End file.
